Milford Connecticut and Samuel Coley

The historical texts say that Samuel Coley was in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by 1631.  But tell little else about that time period.  The historical texts say that Peter Prudden and the Puritans who accompanied him arrived in Boston in

In May, 1637, the Hector sailed from London to Boston, 
carrying a company gathered by John Davenport and Theo- 
philus Eaton of London. Five weeks later another ship 
arrived with a group headed by Peter Prudden, a native 
of Hertfordshire. Among the original Milford settlers 
known to be of this company were Edmund Tapp, James 
Prudden, William Fowler, Thomas and Hannah Bucking- 
ham, Thomas Welch, Richard Piatt, Henry Stonehill, and 
William East, all from Hertfordshire. The new arrivals 
stayed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for almost a year, 
and were considered such desirable colonists that efforts were 
made to induce them to settle there permanently. 

Davenport and Prudden, however, desired to establish 
their own colony, and when the potentialities of the region 
at the mouth of the Quinnipiac River in Connecticut were 
verified by an expedition made in August, 1637, by Eaton 

https://archive.org/stream/historyofmilford00fede/historyofmilford00fede_djvu.txt

James Prudden is likely my ancestor....father to Ann Prudden.  Ann Prudden and Samuel Coley married 14 Feb 1640.  This is probably the connection to Milford for Samuel Coley.  Although I do not yet know if he moved to Milford and met Ann or if they had become interested in each other while living in the Mass Bay Colony and Samuel followed Ann to the new colony or perhaps Samuel Coley had lived in the same area as the Prudden family in England and had just arrived a bit earlier than the rest of the group.  It is even possible that some of the younger men with no families had gone ahead of the group to scout out the prospects for the rest of the group.

The Milford Colony was thus a settle- 
ment of Mr. Prudden's followers, recruited from towns in 
England and NevvEngland where he had preached, and 
held together by personal devotion to their leader. <£: 

Sergeant Tibbals suggested the region about the mouth 
of the Wepawaug River, ten miles west of New Haven, 
for their plantation. On February 12, 1639, Edmund 
Tapp, William Fowler, Benjamin Fenn, Zachariah Whit- 
man, and Alexander Bryan from New Haven, journeyed 
to the Wepawaug and purchased land from Ansantawae, a 

It was very interesting to me that in the early days of Milford, they were not connected to any government.

The church was the controlling force in colonial govern- 
ment, education, and social life. The leaders in the church 
were the leaders in civil affairs. Except for allegiance to 
the English Crown, which did not weigh too heavily upon 
the Fathers, they acknowledged no authority but the word of 
God, and "combined into a little republic." Their constitu- 
tion was the Scriptures. 

 There is a list of the original 44 free planters of Milford on this same site.

 The first General Court (town meet- 
ing), held on November 20, 1639, granted forty-four church 
members the franchise as "free planters." 

Here is information about Meeting House Bridge from the History of Milford that I am viewing on Internet Archives...all of the information in the boxes comes from this site that can be reached by the link above.

Although the river was not navigable, it was too deep to 
cross except by fords, of which there were many. The cross- 
ing was easy for riders on horseback or in wagons, but the 
slippery "stepping stones" made it difficult for those on foot. 
During spring freshets the stream was not fordable. The 
Court, therefore, instructed the judges "to consider in what 
place, and after what manner, a bridge may conveniently be 
made over the mill [Wepowage] river, and let it out to be 
don with convenience and Expedition." A site for the church 
had already been selected about one hundred and fifty feet 
south of the present church building at the junction of West 
Main and West River streets. Nearby was a small island, 
suitable for the location of bridge piers. The bridge afforded 
easy access to the church for those living across the river, and 
successive bridges at this point have been appropriately called 
"Meeting House Bridge."